Promise

Hailey

**this is a short story so all of the chapters will be combined into one upload<3

Prologue

I can hardly breathe when the door opens. My parents are going to be in Atlantic City for the night; so we are alone breathing each other in. I know what this sounds like-but I would do anything just to talk to her for an hour. This is wrong. What is wrong about two girls on a couch playing Uno? Everything.

"Danielle stop cheating," Hailey launches for my cards.

"I am not! You are looking at my cards," I push her lightly. I sigh and lift myself back up on the cushion. "How much longer do you think we can do this?"

"I don't know D," her voice trails off. Hailey has been coming over for a month now. When she goes I try and forget. Her parents say lesbians go to hell, so she is straight; and I am straight because my parents do not know. She wraps her arms around me. I can not tell if the tears are mine or hers. My dad told me once that the best loves hurt the most. I never understood that until now.

Chapter 1
We met June 1st, 2018 in a tidy, beige living room, while a group leader talked about rehab prevention. The sensation of my quivering legs still haunts me. Residential is a cruel place; ours was a house in Connecticut with five teenage girls and one guy. Hailey arrived a month before me. She came searching for hope and left with what seemed happiness. I struggled with my sexuality for the first two weeks of being in treatment. That cheesy joke where someone can turn you gay became my truth.

When I was sent to unpack my bags, I was greeted by a bright room with two twin beds. In the corner of the room I spotted a red sticker with the initials HN. The initial system was for privacy but left me clueless until Hailey approached me later.

"Hey! You are my new roommate right? What is your name again?"

"Yea. I'm Danielle," I replied pushing down a grin.. She was openly lesbian or a "f" girl as she liked to say. After the first night we became inseparable. I did not know at the time why I wanted to sit so close to her. She was a drug I could not seem to get enough of.

The other girls that lived in the house were Jordan and Rayne. Jordan, was 11 when she started treatment. She always found a way to make me laugh when she gushed about Super Mario Bros; I guess we both said it wrong. Now I can not seem to get Hailey's voice out of my head; she mocked my accent and cackled. The kind of giggling late at night when you try to be silent and it only intensifies the joke. Sometimes it hurts to try and fathom the pain behind her smile.

I only realized I was screaming until my throat began to ache. Hailey was there but we were not in my house, playing uno or smiling. If only that was the story I could tell. A story that is perfectly sad and can be fixed with a Coldplay song. I can not give you that story.

Chapter 2
Towards the end of Hailey's treatment she went on a day pass; in nonclinical terms she got to leave the house and see her family for the majority of the day. I routinely peeked out of the window until a grey Mazda arrived. Her curly blonde hair was straight, smile a little brighter.

"You are just like E.W.. All the ladies love me in t-shirts huh?" she teased.

E.W. remained a mystery to me but I knew Hailey loved me. So she said when we are older we will date because Connecticut is far from New Jersey. I don't know why I assumed she would wait for me.The day Hailey got discharged anticipation was strangling me. I did not want to imagine what it would be like to not see her everyday.

"You are so cute," she said wrapping me in her arms.

It took a week and a half for her to move on. I found out when it was my turn to be on pass and E.W. was a gorgeous girl named Ewa, the girl she loved all along. I was just another name on the immense list of other girls she had broken. Depression stunted my treatment while she was out exploring. It made me sick that I wished that girl broke her heart; because she did.